PCMMA Household Water treatment products and Loan and Credit services for the poor market systems Eastern Samar, Philippines October 2015

Transcription

1 PCMMA Household Water treatment products and Loan and Credit services for the poor market systems Eastern Samar, Philippines October Led and written by Marie Boulinaud Independent consultant

2 Table of Contents Section 1 Executive summary... 4 Section 2 Objectives and Methodology... 8 Section 3 Preliminary steps: scope of the assessment... 9 Section 4 Context Section 5 Analysis of the household water treatment products market system Section 6: Loan and credit services for the poor market system Section 7 Needs for follow up and monitoring

3 List of abbreviations 4Ps: AMLA: BANAL: BAWASA: BFP: BHW: BIR: CARD: CDA: CDF: CFW: CLTS: DENRAO: DoH: DTI: EFSVL: EMMA: ESAMELCO: FDA: GCC: GSEMPC: GWD: HEA: HWTP: KAP survey: LMPC: MFIs: MLGU: NATCCO: NAWASA: NLB: NWTF: OCCI: PCF: PCMMA: PHATS: PHO: PNB: RHU: RSI: SAMICO: SCCC: THCC: WASH: WB: WSP: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program Anti Money Laundering Act Banahao Livelihood Association Barangay Water and Sanitation Association Bureau of Fire Protection Barangay Health Worker Bureau of Internal Revenue Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Cooperative Development Authority Cooperative Development Fund Cash for Work Community-led Total Sanitation Department of Environment and Natural Resources Administrative order Department of Health Department of Trade and Industry Emergency Food Security & Vulnerable Livelihoods Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative Food and Drugs Administration Giporlos Credit Cooperative Guiuan Savers Multipurpose Cooperative Guiuan Water District Household Economy Approach Household Water Treatment Product Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Survey Lanang Multi-Purpose Cooperative Micro-Finance Institutions Municipal Local Government Unit National Confederation of Cooperatives National Waterworks and Sewerage System New Life Bayanihan Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation Metro Ormoc Community Credit Cooperative Incorporation Philippines Confederation Central Fund Federation Pre-Crisis Market Mapping and Analysis PHilippine Approach to Total Sanitation Provincial Health Office Philippine National Bank Rural Health Unit Rural Sanitary Inspector Samar Multi-purpose cooperative Salcedo Credit Community Cooperative Tindog Hernani Credit Cooperative Water, Sanitation and Hygiene World Bank Water Sanitation Program 3

4 Section 1 Executive summary Context of the study: On November 8, 2013, the Philippines was hit by the strongest typhoon ever recorded, internationally called typhoon Haiyan and named by PAGASA 1 typhoon Yolanda. OXFAM among other agencies and the government of Philippines responded to the humanitarian needs caused by Typhoon Haiyan since November The typhoon heavily impacted Eastern Visayas Region, particularly the island provinces of Eastern Samar and Leyte, as well as the Western Visayas Region, particularly the provinces of Northern Cebu, Iloilo, Capiz and Aklan. According to OCHA 14.1 million people have been affected; with 4.1 million people displaced; 6,201 people reported dead; and 1,785 people missing 2. About 1.1 million houses were damaged or destroyed by the typhoon. The typhoon also affected livelihood options of households particularly coconut farming and related labour opportunities. Emergency response interventions were provided by a number of organisations mostly focusing on various forms of cash and in-kind transfers aimed at meeting food and basic non-food needs; livelihoods recovery and shelter construction and re-building, water and sanitation. The emergency phase of the response ended in June/July 2014 and recovery efforts followed to look at opportunities for restoring livelihoods. Recovery of coconut-based livelihoods is a long-term option, taking five to ten years for coconut trees to re-grow. Alternative and resilient livelihoods have to be found for the affected farmers. The WASH situation has improved a lot since the typhoon but chronic issues linked to access to safe drinking water remain accurate. While there have been interventions to improve the supply of water to households and the sanitation practices in barangays there is still a need to address the everyday WASH needs of communities. Many households have water points and storage but the only treatment option for the water is boiling as none of the water treatment products distributed as a response to typhoon Haiyan are available in the market place. Many NGOs with support from the DoH have carried our CLTS (Community-led Total Sanitation) programmes in affected communities so the demand for sanitation has increased but little has been done to address the supply of affordable services. Two in every three families in Eastern Samar are said to be poor. Poverty incidence has significantly increased from 39.4% in 2006 to 59.4% 2012 and remains the highest in the region. Following typhoon Haiyan, Oxfam response in Eastern Samar has transitioned from early recovery to development, with a priority on market based approaches and disaster preparedness programming. In light of this, Oxfam wished to implement a Pre-Crisis Market Mapping and Analysis (PCMMA) which focuses on the understanding of market situations in normal times as well as during an emergency, in order to inform livelihoods and WASH programmes development and help Oxfam programmes to focus on preparedness ahead of the next typhoon season. Every year, Eastern Samar is hit by an average of 20 typhoons, and this year the El Nino phenomenon threatens to enhance the strength of the typhoons so a PCMMA focused on a typhoon scenario could not be timelier. The recovery and chronic issues and the high poverty incidence keeps people in a vulnerable situation should another strong typhoon hit the province, and requires a strong understanding of the interventions that could enhance their resilience to disasters. Target population Oxfam fights against poverty. In Eastern Samar, we can find the four usual socio-economic categories with a strong incidence of poverty. According to a rapid HEA done in 2014 by Oxfam in Eastern 1 PAGASA stands for Philippines Atmospheric and Geophysical Astronomical Services Adminsitration and is the government agency for weather forecasting, flood control, astronomical observations, and time service. 2 "TyphoonHaiyan - RW Updates". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. December 28,

5 Samar, 3 in this livelihood zone the very poor comprise (average of 29%) percent and the poor (average of 41%) percent. Those two socio-economic groups represent therefore the majority of the population and they saw their vulnerability deepened by the typhoon. Following typhoon Haiyan, hundreds of families have been living in temporary settlements or bunk houses, where many are still two years after. All residents of the so-called no build zone 4 are already displaced, threatened of eviction or awaiting a long overdue resettlement. Those communities have lost or are at risk of losing their livelihoods and social networks, and should per consequence be a priority group of any livelihoods or WASH intervention. The three groups defined as the target group for this PCMMA are therefore the very poor, the poor and the displaced or to be resettled. Critical Markets Critical market systems are markets that plays, played or could play a major role in ensuring survival, and /or protecting livelihoods of the target population during an emergency 5. Following this definition given by the EMMA guide, in order to select which markets to study, one has to consider basic needs and the livelihoods assets of the target groups. In a PCMMA, the critical market selection is also directed by the specific objectives of the exercise, ie in this case not only should these markets support survival in an emergency but they should also contribute to building resilience at any times. On the basis of specific criteria and a ranking exercise, two critical markets were selected during the workshop: 1. The household water treatment products market system 2. Financial services for the poor (focus on loan and credit services) market system Household water treatment products Market System Main trends around supply and demand for household water treatment products There are potentially two ways people can get supplies of household water treatment products (HWTP): from a pharmacy (if willing to purchase) or from the rural health units (for free). After the typhoon (emergency situation) and until now (normal situation), HWTP were/are available for free at the Rural Health Units (RHU) offices (at municipal level) and at the Provincial Health Office (PHO) in Borongan where they get their supplies from. After the typhoon, the Barangay Health Units (BHU) received HWTP in the form of HypoSol, aquatabs and chlorine granules from the RHUs and from INGOs and were in turn distributing those products to the population usually as a blanket distribution. At the time of the assessment which represents a normal situation, the Barangay Health Units visited did not have any stocks of HWTP. The households were getting these HWTP for free from BHUs, RHUs and INGOs several months after the typhoon, but now the situation is different and it is demand-based. If a household needs these products, he will eventually go directly to the RHU to make the request for such product, where there is generally enough stock to meet the demand and the products are free. The demand is mainly linked to outbreaks of diarrhoea, as it is when people get more conscious about the quality of the water they drink. This availability of products in the government health units partly explains the low demand in stores or pharmacies. There is a general recognition that should customers start to ask for water treatment products such as Aquatabs or HypoSol, the pharmacists would start selling them and would get them easily from their usual medicine suppliers or their head office for the big branches like Generics Pharmacy or Mercury 3 Rapid Household Economy Assessment, Eastern Samar Province, Upland Coconut and food crop livelihood zone (2014), Oxfam with technical lead and guidance from the Food Economy Group 4 The No build zones policy is a policy proclaimed after typhoon Haiyan by the Department of Public Works and Highways prohibiting building any structure within 40 meters from the coastline. It has been downgraded to unsafe zones or no dwelling zones and dwellers of these areas are still in a grey zone regarding whether they will be evicted and relocated or allowed to stay in these areas where they have been staying for years 5 EMMA: Practical guide to Market Mapping and Analysis in Emergency, M. Albu,

6 Drugs. The lack of availability of these products on the market now is therefore not a supply problem but a demand problem. On the other side, the respondents in the five municipalities shared they would perhaps buy HWTP if they were available in their vicinity. Recommendations Some of the key recommendations that the programmes should pursue during normal times are as follows: Collaboration with RHU on pre-stocking of HWTP is crucial ahead of the typhoon season: the RHUs of Guiuan and Salcedo shared having no stock at the moment, this is to be verified and if so, awareness on the possibility of ordering stocks from the PHO should be made. The lead time for stocks to arrive to RHUs after a request is of an average of one week, which is too long in case of a typhoon or an outbreak of diarrhea. Pre-stocking is to be encouraged to avoid delays in getting the products in case of a rise in demand or needs. Sensitization sessions for Barangay Health Workers on availability of HWTPs in RHU Sensitization on the use of the products should also be held ahead of a crisis with the BHWs and the BAWASA as key actors of hygiene sensitization in their barangay: after a training, they would then disseminate the messages to the communities they are serving. Work with MLGU/ BLGU on facilitation and drafting of a development plans prioritizing water related intervention o Infrastructure support o Rehabilitation of damaged water systems A few weeks before the typhoon season or when a typhoon alarm is already here: supporting local traders and pharmacies for financial capital and storage to allow them to stock HWTPs in advance (support pre-positioning for those willing to stock HWTPs) Mapping of pharmacies and traders willing to participate in a voucher scheme for HWTPs Some of the key recommendations that the programmes should pursue during an emergency situation (i.e. a typhoon) are as follows: Set up a vouchers-for-hwtps intervention to link targeted households with traders or pharmacies and create a customer relationship that could last beyond the emergency (instead of an in kind distribution) Link with the EFSVL interventions: provide the sari sari stores that EFSVL programme is supporting through cash grant or a voucher scheme with HypoSol and/or aquatabs to render them available to people to see if this creates a demand Loan and credit services for the poor Market System Main trends around supply and demand for loan and credit services There are many informal and formal actors offering loan or credit services to the poor (less to the poorest categories) in the assessed areas of Eastern Samar. Supply is consequently not an issue as capacities of actors are proportional to the number of clients they have: the more clients they have the more income they make through the interest payments so the bigger their capacity to supply more credit or loan becomes. Demand is important and quite constant all over the year (85% of the respondents declared having already taken a loan or credit in normal times, and 50% following the typhoon), with peaks during back to school times in May/June and fiesta months. Purchase on credit in the local sari sari store is very common, and that is the way poor and very poor people access food, medicine and hygiene items in difficult times. People usually revert to the same store, in their neighbourhood, where they are known and trusted. 6

7 The value of purchase on credit is limited to a small amount, ie usually less or equal to P500 at a time, while loans involve bigger amounts, in most cases to a minimum of P1,000 up to P10,000. Borrowing more than P10,000 is a big amount and a risk for poor households who earn in average P4,500 a month 6. Purchase on credit, when practiced, is done regularly as a revolving purchase system: some households purchase up to P1,000 of goods per week on credit, in two to three purchasing times. Loans take time to reimburse so an individual will usually not take more than 6 loans per year, only one or two if there are of a big amount for the household (e.g. more than P5,000 for a poor household). After the typhoon, households have resorted to the same formal and informal lending actors to meet the unmet needs, repair their house, recover their livelihoods and pay the education fees and costs. Amounts borrowed were smaller, up to P5,000 at a time, as capacity to repay was reduced due to the typhoon s impacts on livelihoods. Recommendations One of the main issues faced by the target groups is the lack of awareness of interest rates practiced and the consequences should they become delinquent. There is a need to advocate to the government for more transparency on interest rates (application of the Truth in Lending Act and for a policy for formal lending institutions to practice lower interest rates. The sari sari stores and the informal money lenders are the safety nets of the poor, in a normal situation as well as after a crisis, so the programmes should seek to target them which requires a preliminary mapping of those actors in all the covered areas. Some of the key recommendations that the programmes should pursue during normal times are as follows: Support sari-sari stores owners to become more resilient to shocks through better preparedness: - Sensitization on the importance to have a safe place to store items in case of a typhoon warning - Support to better accounting and financial literacy - Sensitization on the importance of having savings to better cope with a shock Lobby the national policies on interest rate to lower the rates practiced by MFIs and advocate for lower informal interest rates Provide financial literacy training for the target groups Sensitization on the different conditions of loans and insurance schemes practiced by the different MFIs and cooperatives present in the five municipalities Mapping of all sari-sari stores offering credit services to the poor and very poor in the barangays of intervention to allow quicker targeting in case of an emergency should we want to support them; mapping of their suppliers is also recommended Mapping of the main informal money lenders to better understand to what extent poor and very poor rely on them in difficult times and allow for a quicker targeting should we want to support them Some of the key recommendations that the programmes should pursue during an emergency situation (i.e. a typhoon) are as follows: 1/ Sari-sari store owners: If a strong typhoon strikes Eastern Samar, the sari sari stores owners are likely to be the most affected among all of the lenders actors. Different options of interventions are possible to support this group in an emergency: Cash grant can be given to them to allow them to repair damages to their stores and resupply Vouchers can be given to them for buying their supplies 6 Findings from the RHEA corroborated by the assessment s findings 7

8 Cash grant or loans can be given to their suppliers to allow them to recover faster and supply the sari sari stores 2/ Informal money lenders:. Prioritizing support to the poor and medium informal lenders can prevent the informal credit chain to be broken and keep the community credit mechanisms alive to facilitate access to credit for the poor and very poor. This support can take different forms: ensuring their participation in a CFW scheme, prioritize them for a cash grant distribution, give them short-term employment as daily labourers, etc Section 2 Objectives and Methodology Objectives Two years after typhoon Haiyan, Oxfam programmes in Eastern Samar are transitioning from early recovery to long term development. Oxfam also wishes to strengthen the preparedness aspect of its programmes. The PCMMA took place within this context and is intended to inform better programming with a strong focus on market integration. The objectives of the PCMMA were to: - Inform programs seeking to build resilience or mitigate the impact of a forecasted crisis on key livelihood assets of the target group; - Improving agency preparedness to respond to the forecasted crisis by understanding the impact it will have on the critical market systems; - Supporting contingency planning exercises, through enhancing collection and analysis which includes gender component and capitalization of market information. -Building staff capacity in market analysis and change approaches and attitude towards market based programming. Methodology The Pre-Crisis Market Mapping and Analysis (PCMMA) methodology has been used for this market mapping and analysis exercise. The PCMMA guidance document 7 is made to guide market analysis practitioners and team leaders to conduct market assessments prior to emergencies in order to anticipate how markets will respond after a shock occurs. PCMMA is designed to help agencies improve response preparedness, to feed into contingency planning efforts and to contribute to the design of disaster risk reduction programs by identifying certain parts of market systems which may be vulnerable to shocks. Ideally, pre-crisis analysis will help to increase the speed and relevance of emergency responses and provide guidance on how to strengthen market systems ahead of emergencies to reduce the impact of future disasters on lives and livelihoods. The PCMMA guidance is intended to be a step by step guidance for practitioners who can apply the methodology of their choice: EMMA, RAM or others. For this exercise, the EMMA methodology was applied and the only change was in the objectives, timing and scope. As for an EMMA, this PCMMA has identified the different components that make the market systems: the market environment with its norms, rules and trends, the market chain and the infrastructures, inputs and services supporting the market system. The «MMA» or Market Mapping and Analysis methodology intends to focus only on selected critical market systems that fit with the objectives of the exercise (see below «selection of critical markets»). In a PCMMA, the essential preliminary steps to data collection are the identification of the reference crisis that will make the emergency situation and of the normal situation that will make the baseline situation, the selection of the target groups and the selection of critical markets. 7 The PCMMA guidance document can be found on the EMMA website at the following address : 8

9 A four days training/workshop preceded a period of five days for data collection. The team was composed of a consultant-lead of the PCMMA exercise and six teams of two to three people with one team leader per team. Three teams were assessing the water treatment products market and the three others the loan and credit market. Section 3 Preliminary steps: scope of the assessment Selection of the «reference crisis» and «normal situation» The PCMMA methodology entails the definition of a baseline period so called the «normal situation» and of an emergency situation based on a «reference crisis». The definition of these two periods allows comparing the functioning of the market systems during a normal time and under a crisis and identifying the impact of the emergency on the market system. The reference crisis is selected after a plenary discussion during the workshop during which all crises affecting the targeted area are listed and discussed. The different crises are ranked in terms of relevance for the PCMMA exercise following three criteria: 1. Predictability and recurrence of the crisis 2. A recent occurrence in order for people and traders to remember its impacts 3. The crisis should have a strong impact on people s livelihoods and access to basic needs Four crises have been identified by the participants and ranked according to these three criteria: typhoon, drought, floods and earthquake. A typhoon has been selected as the type of crisis to assess for its high predictability (10 to 20 per year in Eastern Samar), its recent occurrence (Haiyan in 2013, Ruby in 2014) and its very severe impact on livelihoods and access to basic needs. Once the type of crisis is selected, the participants should select a specific occurrence of this crisis for ease of reference during the data collection. Typhoon Haiyan has been chosen as the reference crisis for its strong impact in the targeted municipalities (typhoon Ruby would have been more recent and representative of a usual typhoon, but the affected municipalities were not the ones where Oxfam has current programmes). Following this step, the «normal situation» was defined. First was identified what made a normal year in Eastern Samar: -a rainy season from November to January -light rains from July to November -a dry season from April to May -10 to 20 Category 1 or 2 typhoons -a stable political environment -two rice planting seasons: in June and in December -high fishing season from April/May to August -low water supply/level from April to August -dengue season during the rainy season It has been agreed that following this definition of a normal year, 2015 could be considered as a normal year. As typhoon Haiyan happened on November 8 th, for sake of comparison, the normal situation was decided to be NOW to exclude any seasonal factor in the comparison of the ways market systems function and the way people interact with them. Selection of the target groups The target groups for the PCMMA exercise were also defined during the workshop. 9

10 Participants were asked to think about the different socio-economic groups that make the society in the five targeted municipalities (those were pre-defined) based on their level of income and asset holding. Participants were also asked to think about who in those groups were the most affected by the reference crisis, ie typhoon Haiyan. The group came up with the four categories of socio-economic groups as per the HEA methodology, that is the very poor, the poor, the medium and the better off. Those four categories are well distinguished in Eastern Samar and have particular characteristics. The very poor and the poor have suffered the most from the typhoon and are the ones for whom recovery is the hardest and the way to resilience still long in front of them. The very poor and the poor own very little to no land, don t have any regular income and are usually the ones living in the dangerous zones. Another category was added, the one of the displaced or to be resettled. They are the residents of the no build zones 8, already displaced, threatened of eviction or awaiting a long overdue resettlement. Those communities have already or are at risk of losing their livelihoods and social networks, and should per consequence be a priority group of any livelihoods or WASH intervention. The three groups defined as the target group for this PCMMA are therefore the very poor, the poor and the displaced or to be resettled. The household interviews consequently targeted only those categories of household and the findings represent their practices and strategies. Selection of critical markets Critical market systems are markets that plays, played or could play a major role in ensuring survival, and /or protecting livelihoods of the target population during an emergency 9. Following this definition given by the EMMA guide, in order to select which markets to study, one has to consider basic needs and the livelihoods assets of the target groups. In a PCMMA, the critical market selection is also directed by the specific objectives of the exercise, i.e. in this case not only should these markets support survival in an emergency but they should also contribute to building resilience at any times. A discussion took place on the different needs and goals of the target groups (an example of a goal for the very poor is to access regular income, one for the poor is to access land ownership), then the following question was asked: «what are the markets having the best potential to meet the goals identified for each target group?. Here the aim is to select a long list of markets that offer opportunities for the target groups to meet their goals of regularity of income, resilience and others. After a brainstorming around those potential markets with the participants, the following markets were long-listed: financial services, transport (pedicap or tricycle), local fresh fish, water container and household water treatment products. Each market was scored from 1 to 5 against each of these following criteria: => Support access to food or safe water during a crisis => Support livelihood resilience => In line with Oxfam mandate => Market impacted during a crisis => Intervention linked to this market feasible and relevant (capacities, objective ) => Market accessible and critical for all groups of people => Market where we need information Below is the table with the scores: 8 The No build zones policy is a policy proclaimed after typhoon Haiyan by the Department of Public Works and Highways prohibiting building any structure within 40 meters from the coastline. It has been downgraded to unsafe zones or no dwelling zones and dwellers of these areas are still in a grey zone regarding whether they will be evicted and relocated or allowed to stay in these areas where they have been staying for years 9 EMMA: Practical guide to Market Mapping and Analysis in Emergency, M. Albu,

11 Options of market systems/criteria 1. Support access to food or safe water during a crisis 2. Support livelihood resilience 3. In line with Oxfam mandate 4. Market impacted during a crisis 5. Intervention linked to this market feasible and relevant (capacities, objective ) 6. Market accessible and critical for all groups of people 7. Market where we need information Financial services Transport (2/3 wheel) Local fresh fish Water container HH water treatment products TOTAL Table 1 Scoring and selection of critical market systems Following the scoring, the markets selected were household water treatment products 10 and financial services, with a focus on loans and credit for the poor. Transport obtained the same overall score as financial services but it was decided that this market system was not the most relevant for this PCMMA as Oxfam has already gathered a lot of information on the way it functions through post distribution monitoring of the small business grants given to pedicab drivers. The emergency situation for the two selected market systems differed in their duration. For the water treatment products system, the emergency situation has been considered as the six months that followed the landfall of typhoon Haiyan, i.e. until the beginning of May 2014, as this is when the water situation came back to a normal or semi-normal situation. For the financial services for the poor market systems, the emergency situation considered was the period within two months after typhoon Haiyan, so until the beginning of January This was the period during which power was still cut and most of people were living under tarpaulins or in temporary shelter or tents. Key analytical questions In accordance with the EMMA approach, the assessment team developed and approved a set of key questions that are here to guide the field research and the analysis. The questions were specific for each critical market system selected. The key analytical questions of the PCMMA were also defined together with the participants during the workshop. The following key analytical questions were articulated: 1. For the household water treatment products market system: a. What kind of household water treatment are/were practiced during normal times and 6 months after the typhoon? b. What are the capacities of local traders to supply household water treatment products in sufficient quantity during normal times and after a typhoon? c. What is the seasonality of demand for household water treatment products? 10 The main household water treatment products used in the Philippines are HypoSol (standing for Hypochlorite Solution and manufactured in the Philippines) and water purification tablets commonly called aquatabs as the most famous brand of tablets Aquatabs. In this report we will refer to both products when referring to household water treatment products (HypoSol coming in a bottle and aquatabs in tablets) and use the generic term aquatabs with no capital A for the water purification tablets. 11

12 d. What is the willingness to pay for household water treatment products? 2. For the loan and credit services for the poor market system: a. What are/were the capacities of loan and credit lenders to provide the target groups with enough credit now and two months after the typhoon? b. What kinds of loan or credit are/have the target groups accessing/accessed now and two months after the typhoon? c. Which conditions the target groups are willing/ready to accept to access a loan or a credit? d. Under which terms and conditions loan and credit services operate during normal times/now and two months after the typhoon? e. Is/did access to credit help/ing the target groups meeting their survival and livelihoods protection needs in normal times and two months after the typhoon? The key analytical questions define the scope of the assessment and are answered by the analysis. Data collection: coverage area and process Data collection took place between the 15 th and the 20 th of October in five municipalities of Eastern Samar: Guiuan, Salcedo, Hernani, Giporlos and Balangiga. Within these municipalities, data collection took place in barangays where Oxfam is currently implementing WASH and/or livelihoods programmes. These five municipalities were chosen as Oxfam has been implementing programmes there since the typhoon and intends to have a long-term presence there. For household water treatment products, 74 households and 11 traders (including pharmacies) have been interviewed over the five municipalities. RHUs employees of the five municipalities, one Barangay Health Worker of Cansumangkay in Balangiga, one Barangay Health Councilor in Guinmaayohan and the Provincial WASH Coordinator in the Provincial Health Office in Borongan have also been interviewed as key informants. For the loan and credit services for the poor, 58 households, 8 informal individual money lenders, 7 sari sari stores, 5 cooperatives, 2 MFIs, 3 pawnshops and 2 formal banks have been interviewed over the five covered municipalities. 12

13 Guiuan Figure 1 Targeted municipalities for data collection Section 4 Context This PCMMA takes place almost two years after the strongest typhoon ever recorded made landfall in Eastern Samar. Typhoon Haiyan left hundreds of thousands of families homeless, with tremendous loss in livelihood assets. Access to safe drinking water was also a challenge as the typhoon damaged the existing water systems in most affected locations. Poverty incidence is high in Eastern Samar province and recovery has been slow. Reliance on monocropping with the coconut farm being the only livelihoods of a majority of Eastern Samar inland inhabitants has enhanced the negative impact of the typhoon. Numerous families have been displaced as living in unsafe zones or waiting for resettlement. The PCMMA looks at livelihood strategies used by the very poor, the poor and the displaced through contraction of credit or loan. The PCMMA also looks at household practices around water treatment, knowledge and the availability of treatment options for households. According to the seasonal calendar done in the recent Rapid HEA 11, we can find two lean seasons during which people would resort more to taking credit or loans. The debt burden was noted in the rapid HEA: The poor and very poor have outstanding credit and loan repayments ranging Php2, 000- Php 4, 000 which indicates a debt burden particularly that they do not have savings. 11 Rapid Household Economy Assessment, Eastern Samar Province, Upland Coconut and food crop livelihood zone (2014), Oxfam with technical lead and guidance from the Food Economy Group 13

14 Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Weather and Related Hazards Rainfall high moderate low high moderate high Typhoon season Floods Crop Production Coconut Rice- Upland Rainfed Rice- lowland irrigated Cassava Sweet potatoes Yams/Taro Vegetables Labour and Income Generating Activities Consruction labour high high Sari-Sari/vending/transport moderate High low High moderate Low moderate High moderate Remittances high high Livestock sales Other Festivals Depend on Loans/credit Lean Months Income moderate low high low high high high low high high low high Expenditure moderate moderate low moderate high high high low high moderate moderate low Prices Rice Price trends low high low high Non food prices high high high Legend Land preparation Planting Weeding Harvest Crop sales Figure 2: Typical Seasonal Calendar in the Upland coconut and food crop zone According to the calendar done during the HEA, households rely the most on loans and credit in the months of February and March then July and August, which are the lean seasons in relation to the agricultural calendar. The PCMMA has triangulated this information and found different periods when people contract a loan or a credit: during fiesta months in April, May and October depending of the location, if there is family event like a birth or a death which could be any time, for school fees and other back to school-related costs in May/June and July. Fishermen tend to take credit or a loan during the windy months from October to December, when fishing is rendered difficult, even on the Gulf side. Wealth breakdown and distribution in Eastern Samar Eastern Samar has recently been declared the second poorest province in the Philippines, after the conflict-affected province Lanao del Sur in Mindanao, with 55.4% poverty incidence. 12 The HEA assessment found a more dramatic proportion of poor and very poor households with an average of 29% of households being characterized by the community as very poor and an average of 41% being characterized by the community as poor, which makes a total of 70% of households being poor or very poor. Below are the wealth distribution and wealth breakdown tables from the rapid HEA assessment done in Rapid Household Economy Assessment, Eastern Samar Province, Upland Coconut and food crop livelihood zone (2014), Oxfam with technical lead and guidance from the Food Economy Group 14

15 Figure 3: Wealth distribution in Eastern Samar Figure 4: Wealth breakdown information from focus group discussions in Eastern Samar 14 We can see that the wealth breakdown is largely determined by; land ownership and access level and the number of heads of livestock owned. This is mainly representative of the inland parts of Eastern Samar and doesn t take into consideration the fishing community. The main findings of the HEA were as follows: The Very Poor wealth group constitutes percent of the community and is characterized by a general lack or low ownership of assets. Most of them have no ownership or very low access to land as tenants for production of food crops. Households in this wealth group generally rely on unskilled labour (mainly agricultural) for the majority of their income and small food vending activities mostly done by women. The Poor wealth group constitute percent and have minor ownership of land of less than a hectare and some are tenants with hectare of land mostly used for coconut and food crop production. The majority of households are among this wealth group and although the income level is similar activities may slightly vary but are largely from coconut production and a combination of semiskilled informal work such as masonry, carpentry activities, self-employment activities in small sari-sari shops, pedicabs. Most children can get to college level and employed in low earning jobs in urban areas or within the municipalities. The Middle wealth group constitutes percent- are typically households with moderate land ownership of 2-3 hectares, used primarily for coconut and root crops. Most children attain college and 14 The baseline data in figure 5 refer to pre-typhoon Haiyan situation 15

16 university education and are employed outside the zone and some even abroad remitting more income to families back home. The Better Off wealth group, constitutes 6-15 percent, and is characterized by bigger land owners typically owning 3-6 hectares and above. While the number of working people is similar to the middle, the major difference is that the type of work is typically permanent high salary jobs such. This wealth group relies on running bigger trade businesses and remittances. Expenditure Needs: The poor and very poor require about Php6, 170 to Php6, 950 to meet their basic food and non-food needs each month. The analysis showed that these groups were able to meet these costs before and after the typhoon in the presence of loans, the 4Ps government transfer and the various cash transfers. This shows that without these sources, households are unable to raise enough resources to meet their survival and livelihood protection threshold 15. Practices around household water treatment A KAP survey done in September 2014 in Eastern Samar 16 comparing practices of households in typhoon-affected areas two months after the typhoon (the baseline situation) and in September 2014 (the endline situation) describes household water treatment practices, as described below. We can see from the table below that HypoSol was used by 19% of the respondents at endline time, compared to a 13% at baseline time. The use of aquatabs to the contrary decreased drastically from 18% to 6%. This can be explained by the wide distribution of HypoSol by humanitarian actors and the local government units after typhoon Haiyan. We can observe boiling as the most practiced method of treatment at both times, with 48% practicing this method during the baseline and 34% at the endline time. A major increase is noticeable in the proportion of people not treating their water at all at endline time (34%) while during the baseline survey, only 1% of the respondents did not use any water treatment method. This change can be explained by the rehabilitation and repair of the level II water systems where water treatment is regularly done by the designated water committee. Figure 5 Water treatment method baseline and endline 15 Rapid Household Economy Assessment, Eastern Samar Province, Upland Coconut and food crop livelihood zone (2014), Oxfam with technical lead and guidance from the Food Economy Group 16 WASH Comparative Analysis Comparative Analysis of Baseline and Endline Studies, Oxfam Eastern Samar, September

17 Section 5 Analysis of the household water treatment products market system Context According to a REACH report 17, 97% of households in Eastern Samar are using an improved source of drinking water. This was corroborated by the assessment respondents whom for the majority were sharing using a shared piped water point or purified water as a source of drinking water. Awareness around safe drinking water is quite high, as indicated by the REACH report findings which estimates at 72.7% the proportion of households in Samar having received a WASH message during the last semester of 2014, where safe water is among the messages the most recalled. Household water treatment products are familiar products for the target groups because of the blanket distributions that took place during several months after the typhoon. Nonetheless, these products are not found in local pharmacies or small stores. The assessment looked at the potential for these products to be purchased by the target groups and the willingness of pharmacists and traders to sale these products. The emergency situation for this market system has been considered as the six months that followed the landfall of typhoon Haiyan, i.e. until the beginning of May 2014, as this is when the water situation came back to a normal or semi-normal situation. Main trends around supply and demand for household water treatment products There are potentially two ways people can get supplies of household water treatment products (HWTP): from a pharmacy (if willing to purchase) or from the rural health units (for free). After the typhoon (emergency situation) and until now (normal situation), HWTP were/are available for free at the Rural Health Units (RHU) offices (at municipal level) and at the Provincial Health Office (PHO) in Borongan where they get their supplies from. After the typhoon, the Barangay Health Units (BHU) received HWTP in the form of HypoSol, aquatabs and chlorine granules from the RHUs and from INGOs and were in turn distributing those products to the population usually as a blanket distribution. At the time of the assessment which represents a normal situation, the Barangay Health Units visited did not have any stocks of HWTP. In Balangiga, a Barangay Health Worker shared not knowing the BHU could have asked the RHU for a new stock of HWTP for free and at any time. The households were getting these HWTP for free from BHUs, RHUs and INGOs several months after the typhoon, but now the situation is different and it is demand-based. If a household needs these products, he will eventually go directly to the RHU to make the request for such product, where there is generally enough stock to meet the demand and the products are free. The demand is mainly linked to outbreaks of diarrhoea, as it is when people get more conscious about the quality of the water they drink. This availability of products in the government health units partly explains the low demand in stores or pharmacies. There is a general recognition that should customers start to ask for water treatment products such as Aquatabs or HypoSol, the pharmacists would start selling them and would get them easily from their usual medicine suppliers or their head office for the big branches like Generics Pharmacy or Mercury Drugs. Some already identified potential suppliers to whom they could order these products. PhilUSA has been mentioned by two pharmacies of Guiuan as a potential supplier. The lack of availability of these products on the market now is therefore not a supply problem but a demand problem. On the other side, the respondents in the five municipalities shared they would perhaps buy HWTP if they were available in their vicinity, so there is a status quo situation where people don t ask for them as they don t see them in store, and stores don t supply them as there is no demand. Nonetheless, a majority of respondents shared not liking the taste of chlorine in these products, which was the reason why they would always prefer buying mineral or purified water over tablets or HypoSol,. A few respondents did not have a problem with the taste and found the treatment convenient for them as they could use their usual source of water (ie the tapstand or handpump near their home) and just 17 REACH/UNICEF (2014) Glimpse on PhATS Baseline (pre KAP plus) 17

18 treat it. Some pharmacists were using aquatabs or HypoSol themselves that they received for free from humanitarian agencies or from the RHU. Key actors in the market system Key actors Findings Normal situation (NOW) Findings emergency situation (within 6 months after typhoon Haiyan) Distributors Pharmacies Small traders PHO 18 Identified potential distributors of HWTPs are LongLivePharma in Manila who is also one of the manufacturer of HypoSol, PHILUSA Corporation (part of the Mercury group) with branches all over the country and Metro Drug Inc., mentioned by one pharmacist in Guiuan. Most branded pharmacies don t have direct contact with distributors but order through the main offices in Cebu or Manila (Mercury Drugs, Generics Pharmacy, Rose Pharmacy, etc). Those distributors have sales representatives all over the country and pharmacists having mentioned them are already in contact with them, which facilitates a potential order of HWTPs supplies. Pharmacies are the main point of sale of medicines and hygiene products in the Philippines, as a consequence they have the best potential to be selling HWTPs, besides having already some identified distributors. Small traders are everywhere in the five municipalities covered, including in remote barangays. This characteristic puts them in a key position for selling HWTPs to the target groups. Nevertheless, as of now none of those small traders are selling HWTPs because of the lack of demand. They could potentially be a point of sale for HTWPs but demand would have to increase drastically for them to see it as a profitable business. The Provincial Health Office is responsible for receiving stocks of water treatment products and dispatch them to the Rural Health Units (at municipal level). The Borongan PHO has an allocated budget for purchasing HypoSol and chlorine granules that is bought from a supplier in Manila (Longlive Pharma Manila) and receives aquatabs from the Department of Health regional office. Stocks are for 3 months in average. During a normal situation, the PHO distributes products to the RHUs upon request only. Requests are relatively scarce so the PHO has never As the distributors remain a potential actor on the market chain after an emergency, there is no current finding on their situation after typhoon Haiyan. Yet, we can presume that given their size and operating capacities, those distributors based in Manila can be fully operational after a typhoon and will have the capacity to provide enough HWTP for the target groups through pharmacies and traders. The suppliers and distributors based in Tacloban and Cebu took longer to recover, a delay of a few months in order to operate under normal conditions was necessary. Medium to big pharmacies in the urban centers recovered quite quickly after the typhoon and were able to operate, yet with a limited capacity, a few days or weeks after the typhoon. For the small ones, recovery has been longer, up to one year for some. Medium and big pharmacies could therefore be focal point of sales of HWTPs after an emergency. Small ones need support to reoperate quickly. Speed of recovery of small traders varied between traders depending of their capacity to recover and level of damage. Nonetheless most of them started to reoperate relatively quickly and played a key role in the overall economic recovery after the typhoon in affected areas. After the typhoon, the PHO did not have to buy any HWTP as supplies were enough from previous stocks and from donations from the DoH and the numerous humanitarian agencies that flowed in. Stocks were sent to RHUs for distribution to households (directly, without request from RHUs), with priority given to the most affected municipalities. In rare cases the PHO distributed HWTPs directly to BHUs. PHO remains the first governmental point of entry for the distributions of HWTPs at provincial level, therefore the Office s level

19 Key actors Findings Normal situation (NOW) Findings emergency situation (within 6 months after typhoon Haiyan) RHUs RSI BHUs BAWASA Water refilling stations 19 and encountered an out of stock situation so far. PHO has a service vehicle used for deliveries in the province. RHUs are the municipal-level representation of the Department of Health. During normal times, they receive aquatabs, HypoSol and chlorine granules from the PHO upon their request and either dispatch them to the Barangay Health Units (rarely) or give products to households who come to the office to ask for them. The RHU of Balangiga doesn t make any prestocking and only keep a small quantity of products in stock (which can be a worry at the time of assessment as it was pre-typhoon season when pre-stocking would be a good preparedness practice), the RHUs in Guiuan and in Salcedo did not have any stock at all at the time of the assessment (only recently out of stock in Salcedo but since a longer time in Guiuan). The RHU of Giporlos seemed to have more stocks. The Rural Sanitary Inspector is in charge of the stock management and storage of HWTP. He is the focal person in the RHU and the one requesting for HWTP to the PHO. Barangay Health Units are the first line of contact with the community on health and hygiene issues through their health councillors, Barangay Health Workers and Community Health Volunteers. In a normal situation, they don t seem to be distributing HWTP as households go directly to the RHUs to request them and consequently BHUs don t have stocks of HWTP. Nonetheless people are requesting products to them in case of diarrhoea or during the rainy season but they can t meet the demand for lack of stock. BAWASA stands for Barangay Water and Sanitation Association, it is made of elected members of the community. It is a non-profit community-based organization, formed primarily to operate, manage and maintain water, sanitation and hygiene services in a particular area. Their members represent and speak for the WASH concerns of the community, and elevate these concerns to the local government for appropriate action. At least one per municipality, they are located in the urban centers. In Guiuan there are more than 5 of them. Water is purified at the store and sold on site, through sari-sari stores or delivered to customers by delivery personnel. Most customers are reusing their own water of stock and storage capacity is crucial for availability of HWTPs in the province. RHUs play a key role during emergency as they distribute HWTPs to all categories of households, including to the target groups. The distributions are supported by Barangay Health Units with the Barangay Health Workers or done directly by the RHUs member. RHUs receive HWTPs from the PHO and from humanitarian actors. After the typhoon, the HWTP were distributed mainly by the BHWs when they came from the BHUs; BHWs also played an important role on hygiene messages dissemination. The water refilling stations recovered one to several months after the typhoon depending on their capacity to recover and level of damage. Those who were able to procure a generator did not have to wait for the power to be back to re-operate, therefore restarted activities less two